Woman Collects 500,000 Pennies To Pay For Goddaughter’s College Tutionn

A woman named Faith collected 500,000 pennies to donate toward her goddaughter’s college tuition, a chunk of change that will pay for her room and board.

In 1997, Faith Hammock, 40, of Indianapolis, began saving spare change in an effort she called “Pennies From Heaven,” so that her goddaughter, Kyla Gilbert, could someday attend college.

When Gilbert was just 3-years-old, Hammock, who was born with a brain condition and is mentally disabled, began collecting rolls, baskets and fists full of pennies. And when she began spreading the word, more donations started pouring in.

“Faith even had us picking up pennies off the street. If we saw pennies on the street, you had to pick them up,” said Hammock’s mother, Janice Mays.

The 15 years of determination and coin collecting by the family paid off for Gilbert.

“All this hard work that they’ve put into me, I had to put it into something else and show them that I’m a good student. They are investing in me and they are investing in something good,” Gilbert said.